As part of the Google/AOL deal which is expected to be announced this afternoon, Google is providing AOL with $300 million in advertising on Google's Web sites, intended to use to draw Google search users to related content on AOL's sites, according to the New York Times. That sum is on top of the $1 billion in cash that Google is to invest to buy a 5 percent stake in AOL.

The executives close to the talks said that at AOL's request, Google would begin to test various forms of graphical ads, and that it would make the same formats available to other advertisers. Google has started to sell graphical ads for placement on other sites; plans to do so on Google itself were accelerated by the AOL talks.

Yet as AOL's parent, Time Warner, was exploring potential deals with Google and Microsoft

, it pressed Google for ways that Google users could be directed to AOL pages. AOL is trying to replace the declining profit from its dial-up subscription business with advertising revenue from free Web sites like AOL.com.

One format being discussed is a box, which may include a photograph and a logo, that would appear on the main search results pages toward the bottom of the advertisements in the right-hand column. Traditional banner ads may appear on Google Image Search and the Froogle shopping site, which already include many photographs, an executive involved said. No advertising is contemplated for the Google home page.

In addition to the $300 million in advertising, Google has agreed to help put content from AOL on other parts of its site as well. Google, for example, will look for content and services from AOL to include in a feature it calls One Box, which puts very specific links and content above regular results for certain search topics, an executive involved in the negotiations said.